Katie Couric asks Manti Te'o if he's gay

Manti Te'o during the recording of his interview with Katie Couric. (Lorenzo Bevilaqua / ABC )

Katie Couric went there. During her televised interview with Manti Te'o over the infamous girlfriend hoax, she asked whether the All-American linebacker from Notre Dame was gay.

"Are you gay?” Couric asked during the interview that was televised Thursday on her nationally syndicated television show.

”No, far from it, far from it,” Te'o replied with an undertone of nervous laughter.

Te'o, who led Notre Dame to the BCS national championship game and was the runner-up in voting for the Heisman Trophy as college football's best player, was duped into believing he had a loving online relationship with a girl named Lennay Kekua. But Kekua wasn't real, a concoction reportedly of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo's creation.

There has been much speculation that Te'o was taking part in the hoax, which included Kekua dying of leukemia the same week that Te'o's grandmother passed away. Later that week, Te'o vaulted into the national spotlight when he made 12 tackles, recovered a fumble and had a sack in a nationally televised 20-3 victory over Michigan State, citing the deaths of his girlfriend and grandmother in postgame interviews.